1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to electronic musical instruments that use keyboards to simulate performance techniques being manually effected on acoustic instruments.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, there are provided electronic musical instruments equipped with keyboards containing keys, which will be referred to as xe2x80x9celectronic keyboard instrumentsxe2x80x9d. Some electronic keyboard instruments are designed to control musical tones based on a variety of performance techniques (or executions) which are detected. So, there are a variety of documents teaching the aforementioned electronic keyboard instruments, as follows:
(1) Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. Hei 2-146596 (referred to as xe2x80x9cdocument 1xe2x80x9d) discloses a musical tone control method for an electronic musical instrument based on performance techniques such as xe2x80x9clegatoxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cstaccatoxe2x80x9d, for example. Herein, the electronic musical instrument controls musical tones by detecting performance techniques based on operating conditions of performance operators (e.g., keys, switches and controls). The operating conditions of the performance operators are related to initial-touches, after-touches, key-on times, etc. So, performance techniques such as xe2x80x9ctenutoxe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9cstaccatoxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cdecrescendoxe2x80x9d, all of which are Italian musical terms, are detected based on those operating conditions of the performance operators, so that musical tones are being controlled in response to the detected performance techniques.
(2) Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. Hei 3-116096 (referred to as xe2x80x9cdocument 2xe2x80x9d) discloses an electronic musical instrument designed to automatically simulate performance techniques of acoustic instruments such as violins, brass instruments and guitars, for example. Herein, the electronic musical instrument controls musical tones in accordance with performance technique programs, which are selected in response to tone colors being selected by users. The performance technique programs are provided for simulation (or imitation) of characteristics in sound generation of acoustic instruments. For example, violins have following characteristics:
(i) To change a sound to another one being played on a same string, a player normally changes his or her fingering position to depress the string while moving a bow continuously. In this case, sounds are changed over continuously without breaks. This brings a musical effect such as xe2x80x9cportamentoxe2x80x9d.
(ii) When the player changes a string presently being played to another one, the player""s finger and bow naturally leave from the string. In this case, sounds are changed discontinuously with breaks. This does not bring the musical effect of portamento with ease.
(iii) Normally, a number of sounds being produced simultaneously is limited to one or two, for example.
To cope with the aforementioned characteristics of the violin, which is designated as the tone color being actualized on the electronic musical instrument, the document 2 teaches musical tone generation controls by following conditions:
(i) Suppose that two sounds are being generated sequentially. If a preceding sound and a present sound belong to a register corresponding to a same single string of the violin, the electronic musical instrument automatically imparts a portamento effect with respect to switching from the preceding sound to the present sound.
(ii) If the preceding sound and present sound do not belong to the register corresponding to the same single string of the violin, the electronic musical instrument starts generating the present sound after the preceding sound without using the portamento effect.
(iii) A number of sounds being generated simultaneously is limited to two.
Thus, the electronic musical instrument having a keyboard is capable of obtaining performance effects on simulation (or imitation) of the characteristics of the violins.
The electronic keyboard instrument of the document 1 is designed to detect the performance techniques by scanning all sensor outputs and operating states of the keyboard. If the electronic keyboard instrument is further increased in number of sensors being equipped and kinds of performance techniques being detected, it takes much processing time in scanning the sensors and detecting the performance techniques. So, the electronic keyboard instrument of the document 1 suffers from problems on processing speeds.
The performance technique programs employed in the electronic keyboard instrument of the document 2 are not provided to directly detect the performance techniques such as tenuto, staccato and decrescendo. But, they are provided to obtain performance effects simulating characteristics of acoustic instruments by discriminating conditions, which are being extracted from the characteristics of the acoustic instruments. In short, the document 2 does not contribute to detection of the performance techniques in general. In addition, the electronic keyboard instrument of the document 2 is not equipped with touch sensors, so it is not designed to detect the performance techniques based on performance information data being given from a variety of sensors.
It is an object of the invention to provide an electronic keyboard instrument that is capable of simulating performance techniques of acoustic instruments with rich expression in music performance.
An electronic keyboard instrument of this invention is basically configured by a keyboard, a microcomputer, a tone generator and a sound system as well as sensors, switches and foot switches. Each of keys of the keyboard is equipped with a variety of sensors and switches such as a touch sensor, make switches (1M, 2M), a key-stroke sensor, key-depression pressure sensors and a hammer-depression pressure sensor, while the foot switches correspond to a damper pedal, a soft pedal and a sostenuto pedal as well as a slur foot switch and a portamento foot switch. Herein, various acoustic instruments are related to different performance techniques respectively. So, operating a foot switch designates a specific performance technique detection rule in response to a desired tone color corresponding to an acoustic instrument whose sounds are being simulated. Then, a performance technique is detected in accordance with the performance technique detection rule on the basis of outputs of the sensors, at least one of which is selectively used. Thus, the tone generator generates musical tones with respect to the tone color, wherein the musical tones are controlled in response to the performance technique with respect to at least one tone factor (e.g., a tone volume, tone color and pitch). Incidentally, operating the slur foot switch designates a slur-related performance technique detection rule for detection of performance techniques such as slur and staccato. In addition, operating the portamento foot switch designates a portamento-related performance technique detection rule for detection of performance techniques such as portamento and glissando.
Among the sensors, the touch sensor detects a touch of a performer""s finger on the key, the key-depression pressure sensors respectively detect left and right key-depression pressures being applied to the key, and a hammer-depression pressure sensor detects a hammer-depression pressure being applied to a hammer interlocked with the key. In addition, in response to rapid variations that occur on the left and right key-depression pressures being applied to the key, it is possible to detect special performance techniques such as tremolo and vibrato. Further, an initial touch is detected by measuring a time that elapses from a timing to turn the 1M switch ON to a timing to turn the 2M switch ON.
Because this invention is designed to detect performance techniques in accordance with performance technique detection rules, each of which is determined in response to the tone color designated by the performer, it is possible to promptly actualize various performance techniques of acoustic instruments being simulated without increasing processing time. So, the electronic keyboard instrument of this invention is rich in musical expressions simulating the performance techniques of the acoustic instruments on the keyboard.